Salome

Monograph

168 pages45 illustrations26 platesprice 8,00 €

Not available

«Salome» amidst decadence and classicism

by Giangiorgio Satragni

A little more than one hundred years have gone by since Salome came to tread the boards of the musical theatres. Since that evening in Dresden on 9 December 1905 a lot of water has passed under the bridges, to soften the souls as w ell and permit historiography to look with greater detachment at that formidable resounding reappearance of Wilde’s perverse adolescent, a clamorous success and a perfect scandal: Richard Strauss’s good fortune …

«Salomé» or the impossible tragedy

by Guido Davico Bonino

[…] On the basis of what literature did Wilde develop the idea of giving theatrical form, and in French, to the story of Salomé? Perhaps we have to start precisely with the choice of this improper language in order to respond, with all the limitations inherent in a «review of the sources» (methodology among other things very démodée, even among the comparatisti), to such a complex question…

A portrait

by Luca Del Fra

If anybody saw the world change, it was Richard Georg Strauss. Born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria, in a Germany that was not even a state, while a few months earlier in Paris Gioachino Rossini, the last great composer born in the eighteenth century, had consigned to posterity that notable symphonic piece Petite Messe Solennelle, which would turn out to be his swan song…

Return from the past
«Salome» in Torino, seven times in a century

by Valeria Pregliasco and Giorgio Rampone

Torino, 20 December 1906. At the Porta Nuova station, a man quickly gets off the train from Milan carrying a bag that conceals an unusual woman’s dress. An extravagant Christmas gift for his wife or a friend? No. What Luigi Sapelli from Pinerolo, known to everyone as Caramba, guarded so carefully was no less than the final missing touch to the musical happening of the year, the coveted presentation in Italy of Richard Strauss’s Salome…

Further notes

by Angelo Chiarle

[…] «He was a fine gentleman: clothes well-cared for, silk top hat, elegant. A superior spirit, alternating between stateliness and mischief, humour and humanity». Chercher l’homme then to start with. Maybe availing oneself of the penetrating esprit de synthèse of Dominique Jameux…

Virtual bookmarks: a walk through the web

by Michele René Mannucci

At a time when Page and Brin, the future fathers of Google, did not yet figure in the hall of fame of the richest men in the world, presenting a first prototype to their supervisor they heard him retort sceptically: «Do you realize that to be able to do it you would have to download the entire world web on your computer? And how do you intend to do that?». To which they responded: «Actually we’re already doing it!»…

Synopsis
(L'Argomento, L’Argument, Die Handlung)

The structure of the opera and the instrumental layout

by Enrico M. Ferrando

Ariadne and Bluebeard is a typical example of post-Wagnerian opera: it is thus a ‘drama in music’, and is not arranged in a succession of separate musical ‘numbers’ like 19th century Italian and French opera . On the contrary, the music flows in perfect continuity from the beginning to the end of each act…